As I explained in yesterday’s post, I’ve divided my August Reading into two parts after realizing how many screens I had to scroll through to write it — and how disinclined you might be to read such a long piece. Between the two, I’ve transcribed my handwritten Reading Journal entries for the twelve books I read last month — many of which are lighter genre fiction, two of which are books in translation that I finished last month after working through for some time.
Among the twelve, I hope you’ll find a few possibilities to add to your Fall and Winter “To Be Read” lists. And when you’ve finished reading my brief reviews, be sure to read the comments (here and on yesterday’s post) where there are always reading discoveries to be made as well.
(Oh, and just in case it’s not obvious: throughout the post, I’ve bolded words or phrases to which I’ve added links you can click on to visit relevant posts or websites. I’ve also used bold font to set off the heading for each book entry, but these are not linked elsewhere. No clicking of the ruby slippers 😉
57. Assassinio in libreria. Lello Gurrado. Italian (no English translation available); un giallo / mystery novel; police procedural (with a twist!); biblio-lit; set in Milan; detective novel featuring detective-novel writers.
I bought this beautiful little giallo tascabile (“giallo” means yellow and refers to the traditional colour of detective novel covers; “tascabile” means it can fit in a pocket, a tasca) in an enticing independent bookstore in Rome last fall — Altroquanda, a bookstore that brews and serves its own beer! (on the premise that this combination stimola la circolazione delle idee e pollina quelli che vi si posano (my rough translation: stimulates the circulation of ideas and pollinates those that settle / land) This was one of several books suggested in response to my request (in my diffident Italian) for un giallo for an advanced learner of Italian. A brilliant suggestion, and I’ve enjoyed reading this so much. Only wish I had someone to share it with, someone who can read Italian but also who enjoys mystery novels as much as I do.
Very clever — the character whose murder is announced in the early pages is a well-known Milanese bookseller: Tecla Dozio, whose appearance in the novel closely resembles this description of her in a 2016 obituary; the “real-life” Dozio wrote the book’s introduction. About the time Milan’s Marcos and Marcos press was publishing Gurrado’s book (2009), Dozio (already suffering with the illness that eventually took her) had announced the upcoming closure of her much-loved bookstore, La Sherlockiana, which specialized in genre fiction dealing with crime.
As an homage to the central role Dozio and her bookstore (libreria) played in promoting the genre, supporting its writers (in her bookstore, but also through her small press, through networking, through her own writing), Gurrado peoples his giallo‘s pages with the international literary world’s best-known mystery writers. Andrea Camilleri pre-eminent among them, but also Fred Vargas, Elizabeth George, Michael Connelly, Ruth Rendell, Henning Mankell, Paco Taibo II, etc. These writers first arrive as surprise guests at a party Dozio throws to celebrate her store’s anniversary. When she’s poisoned shortly after (this isn’t a spoiler; we learn this from the killer’s thoughts and actions in the opening pages), the mystery novelists — devastated, holding her in high regard, and entirely impatient with the Italian police’s efforts to find her killer — join forces to apply their detective skills.
Unfortunately, this book doesn’t seem to have been translated into English, or I’d be pressing copies on all my fellow afficionados of a tightly woven police procedural. Very amusing to see these plotters of fictional murder trying to assist the Italian police — and finding out the limits of their detective skills, the differences between fictional murder and the real thing. Also amusing to see the killer (who, as I’ve said, identifies himself at the outset) write draft chapters of prospective murder mysteries and rage at their rejection. Such bad prose!
Fabulous cover art by David Dalla Venezia — See my Instagram post for a glimpse of this cover.
58. The Postscript Murders. Elly Griffiths. Mystery/Thriller; Police procedural; Biblio-lit; Harbinder Kaur series; Road trip; female detective.
A second Detective Harbinder Kaur mystery — and I liked this more than I did The Stranger Diaries (#34 in that post, scroll down). An old woman dies in a supported-living home, not surprising given her age, but she’d been fit and alert. . . .And her caretaker, Natalka, notices something strange while clearing out the old woman’s flat — an abundance of crime novels dedicated to her by their authors and a business card identifying her as a “murder consultant.” A gunman breaking into the flat and stealing a book turns “strange” into “dangerous” and justifies further investigation — by Detective Kaur but also by a small team of amateurs.
Then other deaths ensue and authors of mystery novels are implicated and targeted, and we readers are treated to a road trip from a seaside town in West Sussex to Aberdeen’s Literary Festival with some wonderful characters (an ex-monk coffee-shop owner; an 80-year-old ex-civil servant gay man wistfully noticing romance around him and delighted to be building friendships; Natalka whose escape from political conflict in Ukraine carries dangerous complications she’s not ready to disclose). And more than one Romantic Arc to the narrative, if mystery isn’t enough for you!
Diversity of characters (age, sexuality, ethnicity, colour, etc.) makes this even more appealing, and then there’s the bookishness of the plot. A happy coincidence that this should follow an Italian novel about murder among mystery writers in my Reading Journal. . . and I remember that Title 18 this year, Ann Cleeves’ The Glass Room plays with this theme as well. As do Anthony Horowitz’s books, Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder.
59. The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa. Translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder. NYC: Picador, 2009. Print (borrowed from VPL). Literary fiction; Memory Loss; Friendship/Love; Mathematics; Baseball.
Recommended months ago by Dottoressa, and then I was reminded of it by my sister-in-law who loved it, having read it on Dottoressa’s recommendation. Elegant, charming, poignant, it’s a meditation on human connections, love, friendship, loss, memory.
A single mother — (herself the daughter of a now-deceased single mother) — supports herself and her son as a housekeeper, dispatched by an agency to a variety of clients. She’s assigned, then, to a man she and her son call “the Professor” — a retired mathematics scholar who has suffered (because of an accident) severe short-term memory loss. Anything experienced or learned since the accident can only be remembered for 80 minutes.
So the professor needs to be re-introduced every morning to the housekeeper and to her son as well, once the son begins accompanying his mother to her work. The Professor attaches notes to his clothes to remind him of various important events and people; however, these notes are of limited efficacy.
But the Professor still has full grasp of his abilities in solving Math problems and he shares his fascination with the Housekeeper and her son (whom he nicknames Square Root for the shape of his head). And before long both housekeeper and son are finding perfect numbers around them and learning about pi and seeing patterns everywhere.
Baseball finds its way into the narrative as well and together these elements deepen a story that delights and makes a reader think and feel beyond the last pages. So much is expressed in 180 pages of lyrical prose. Highly recommended (note that it was an NYT Book Review Editors’ Choice, and both Junot Diaz’s and Paul Auster’s praise for it cited on the covers.
60. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Coming-of-Age / Bildungsroman; Young Adult; Romance; Friendship, LGBTQ; Parent-Teen Relationships.
Recommended by a friend as one of his favourite books ever, so I immediately added it to my VPL holds list — and was lucky not to have to wait too long for a copy, despite the hype that’s sure to build as the movie based on the book will be coming out soon.
A beautiful book about friendship and love, alienation, adolescence: Aristotle and Dante share a Mexican background (and parents with a predilection for classical names!), but Dante is so much more confident in himself, easier with his parents, an only child. Aristotle gets along well with his mother, but is frustrated, hurt, often angry at his father’s reserve (attributed by Ari’s mother to military service in Vietnam). His two (much) older sisters seem remote and he has an older brother in prison about whom no one speaks, of whom Ari is keen to know more.
And he has no friends until he meets Dante at the swimming pool. They quickly become best friends, meeting each other’s parents, learning as much about each other as they can. Dante introduces Ari to poetry, to reading in general — which helps bring Ari closer to his father.
But then there’s a serious accident, a seriously prolonged convalescence. As well, Dante moves away for a year when his father takes a position at another university. And perhaps the biggest complication of all: Dante tells Ari that he likes boys rather than girls . . . and that he will settle for friendship but is also interested in more from Ari, whom he loves. So far, Ari has managed to suppress any questions about his own sexuality and he resents Dante for forcing him to feel uncomfortable with their relationship.
On a lighter note, there’s a beautiful vintage red truck. . . and so much convincing insight into aspects of teen-aged relationships (beyond Dante’s and Ari’s). Some very thoughtful representation of a teen-parent relationship. Very nuanced, hopeful but realistic.
I’d love to see this in all high school libraries — and I expanded on which readers I think would benefit from it, and why, in my Instagram post.
61. Bad Actors, Mick Herron. Political spy thriller; Failed secret agents; Comedy; Political satire; Jackson Lamb series; Slough House series; Set in London.
I’m so impressed by the way Herron keeps this series fresh, topical, and sharp — with laugh-out-loud “funny.” Probably helps that he kills off a character or two in each novel so that new demoted spies can be added to the cast. This time, overly pugnacious Shirley is in rehab, perhaps the most obvious casualty of all the losses this group of failed agents has sustained, individually and collectively.
But there’s also a Russian double agent whose presence or absence may save Diana Taverner from the machinations of the Prime Minister’s right-hand fixer. And somehow, once again, Jackson Lamb is one step ahead of all the players and — again — makes the most of his “Slow Horses.”
Roddy Ho is as ridiculous as ever and as completely unaware of that truth. There’s a new young female agent and while her attempt to avenge herself against her new boss backfires, she manages to show Roddy why he should give her some respect. And there are only teasers throughout about whether River Cartwright survived the apparent poisoning of the last volume. We do find out in the very end of this book, but I’m not going to spoil that surprise for you. You’ll want to read it for yourself! (But if you haven’t read others in the series, start with Slow Horses. I mention it and the second volume, Dead Lions back in this post
62. Perfect Remains, Helen Fields. Mystery/thriller; Police Procedural; DI Luc Callanach series; Edinburgh setting; Serial killer; Graphic/Gruesome.
I like the Edinburgh setting and also the idea of a Scottish-born (thanks to his father) and French-raised (his mother) police detective. He’s left his job with Interpol for murky reasons and is now adjusting to new accents, new vocabulary, new climate, and new culture, having lived in Scotland his first four years but having scarcely visited since.
And I like his colleague, detective Ara Turner (and her best friend, Professor Natasha Forge) and their developing friendship.
But this is a gruesome serial killer Noir. Very “noir”! I’m not sure if it wasn’t far too gratuitously so, and I’m uncomfortable about what that exploits as an attraction for reading. Big “Ugh” factor here. Might try one more though . . .
And that’s it for my August reading. I’ve taken books outside these last few days to read in sunshine on our terrace, in “the garden,” but beach and hammock reading must yield now, in our hemisphere, to reading indoors in a favourite armchair, perhaps by a fire, perhaps with a favourite cashmere throw draped over our legs, a cup of tea on a tray nearby. . . I’ve already got my book lists ready for Fall and Winter reading, but those titles will have to wait for my September Reading post. . .
But you, you can tell us now what you’ll be reading. Or what you’ve just finished reading and want to recommend. Or you can comment on any of the books I’ve read in August. Anything that helps us build a book chat here. Feel free to share the post, as well — I so love the community of readers we’ve grown here and am happy to see it grow. Handing the mic over to you now (as always, feel free just to wave a hello, either in the comments below or just in spirit — I’ll feel it 😉
xo,
f
Ah. I see now. The very next day you are going to post part II. I should have saved my breath! Finger breath. I’ll try to recall the paragraph I deleted yesterday because it blatantly disobeyed your don’t-talk-about-what-you’re-reading instruction.
John Ruskin – Stones of Venice. Abridged of course. John Ruskin was a strange cat (I knew some of the highlights) and I am absolutely engrossed by the (long and detailed) introduction. This will not be a quick read and I foresee some renewals happening…I don’t think this is in great demand at our library though. (and yes, Venice. I am in the process of renewing my passport which is very very slow and therefore tension-causing.)
I very much like the sound of Assassinio in libreria. Especially as it relates to Andrea Camilleri…you might recall I kept a small independent mystery bookstore afloat during the days at home with my Montalbano enthusiasm. Camilleri was very conscious of his craft and incorporated that into some of the novels and short stories, as well as discussing it at length in interviews. So his character seems to fit in the story as you describe it.
I read Still Life. Quickly, a page-turner. There was something…not anachronistic but…the characters were too modern for the time they lived in. Collectively…no hesitation or struggle at accepting whatever came along. Oh, wait. That was due to the persepective of the narrator. We did not have a glimpse into anyone’s thoughts. Duh. Good thing there are comments boxes to help me figure out what I read. 🙂
Author
Yep, I managed to get ‘er done the very next day! 😉
Venice! And there’s a passport renewal in process! This is very cool and I can see how it might be prompt enough to occasion the reading of a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by a knowledgeable but apparently wordy 19th-century “strange cat” . . . Brava, you, and I hope the library is accommodating about the renewals!
I do remember your Camilleri commitment and I think you’ll be amused by his role in Assassinio, should you ever get your eyes on a copy.
Yes, right from the book’s start the narrative perspective sets up that anachronism — to me, it gave a fondly wry tone, and definitely a modern one, which made it laugh-out-loud funny, for me, and completely endearing. (for me, we only ever get those “glimpses into anyone’s thoughts,” via the narrator, and I’m always interested in figuring out something about that slippery character)
I am putting Assassino in Libreria on my reading list. Thank you for for the review.
I do love mysteries and read in Italian – but I won’t be able to get a copy of the book until we go to Italy next year or find it in the Italian bookstore in San Francisco. We visited I Am Books in Boston this summer; it carried books in Italian along with the usual ones in English.
I bought the latest Schiavone “Le ossa parlano”, and “Una piccola questione di cuore” by a mystery writer I didn’t know – Alessandro Robecchi.
I strongly recommend the Teresa Battaglia mysteries by Ilaria Tuti. They have been translated into English and praised by the NYT and nominated for awards. They are set in a town in the Dolomites. The detective, who is the head of the police department is in her sixties and suffers from arthritis and some dementia. The first one in the series is “Flowers over the inferno.”
Like you, Frances, I am torn when it comes to excessively violent mysteries. I have been put off by the violence, but how many crime novelist can write as well as he does? His style is dazzling. So I read “A Private Cathedral” and was glad I did. Burke actually can pull off that magical realism – particularly when he connects it to overpowering evil.
Frances, I do enjoy and informed by your reviews. Sei bravissima!
Author
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words and thanks for the Teresa Battaglia series recommendation! They’re available (in English and in Italian) at Vancouver Public Library, so I’ll be sure to read them.
And I’m pleased to hear that you, too, found Burke’s A Private Cathedral well worth reading and that we’re on the same page (ha!) when it comes to his writing. Dazzling style and he does what the best crime novelists do, examining questions of good and evil and humanity.
I’ll never keep up with you, but all of these are added to my reading list. I need to make a trip to the used book store and the library.
In the first post, you mentioned light escape books. This summer I read two Emily Henry books. They were captivating and I didn’t want to put them down. You might find them escape reading. The two I read were Book Lovers and Beach Read.
I’m guessing that you’ve read the Dublin Murder Squad series, but mentioning them on the unlikely chance that you have not.
Author
Thanks for recommending the Emily Henry series. I tend to enjoy this genre best in TV (Sweet Magnolias) or rom-com movies, especially if I’m knitting, but if I see one in a Little Lending Library on one of my walks, I’ll be sure to bring it home with me.
Yes, I’ve read — and LOVED — the Dublin Murder Squad. Tana French’s most recent mystery, The Searcher, is a stand-alone, also very good.
Back again after a long and glorious (but also frightening) summer by the lake.
I finally finished Roberto Saviani’s “Gomorra”, all the more gruesome because alle the events mentioned in the book are not fiction but facts.
In Italian I also read: Giorgio Bassani: “Il giardino dei Finti-Contini”. A coming-of-age and first-love novel set in the jewish communitiy of Ferrara of the 1930s, overshadowed by the knowledge that some of the protagonists will not survive the holocaust…
Andrea Camilleri: “Gli arancini di Montalbano”. A number of short stories about a variety of cases, only some of them involving murder. In one story, Montalbano rings up his author (Camilleri) in Rome to tell him, that he is not going to continue because this particular story is not his style.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: “Il Gattopardo”. A classic which I had read in German some time ago, but I very much enjoyed the original. Fascinationg insights into a changing Sicily at the time of Italian unification.
Elizabeth George: “Something to hide”. Far too long and slow for my taste. I begin to feel impatient when protagonists overlook information which every reader has taken in long ago. There are red herrings, as always, but this time they seemed to me clumsy and excessive. The final outcome (i.e. the identity of the murderer) is highly constructed and the motives for the deed are far from convincing. I have lost interest in Linley’s relationship with his traumatized veterinary on rollerblades, and I was disappointed that the friendship between Havers and her Italian colleague was only granted a couple of pages at the very end. The only positive aspect: a bright youth who was allowed (by the author) to prevail in the end.
I also read a couple of books in German, two of which have been or will be translated into English. One of them is Florian Illies “Love in a Time of Hate”. In very short chapters of only one or two pages, all of them describing the forging and dissolving of love relationships between European (and a few American) writers, artists, and musicians, the author draws a portrait of the decade 1929 to 1939. In spite of the title (I hate this cannibalizing of GarcÃa Márquez), I strongly recommend this book, which will be published in English in spring 2023.
The other book is quite old and not as well known as ist deserves, even in this country. “Big Tiger and Christian. Their adventures in Mongolia” by Fritz Mühlenfeld tells the story of the long and difficult journey of two boys from Peking to Urumichi at the beginning of the last century. The author, having accompanied Sven Hedin on one of his expeditions, knows what he is talking about and describes life in the Gobi Desert with sympathy. For those who are interested, it may be possible to find a copy in English on a used-books-page like Abe-books.
From your book list I immediately ordered Sonia Shah’s “The Next Great Migration”. It sounds like just the type of book I enjoy. I also tried to find “Assassinio in libreria”, but it seems impossible to get it here, unless I am willing to pay five times the price of the book for shipping. So I will have to ask my SIL to get it for me in Italy and send it with one of her many visitors.
Author
Eleonore, welcome back — was the summer frightening because of the heat, wildfires, drought?
You have been reading prodigiously! And your Italian has obviously had a serious workout!
I enjoyed Something to Hide muuch more than you did, but I agree that it’s time to switch the focus to Havers and her Italian admirer (and please, please, at least a few chapters in Italy).
Thanks for your other recommendations. I like visualizing the webs we weave here of books and translations exchanged around the globe . . . even when shipping has become so expensive!
Yes, mainly because of the drought. I could literally watch the lake’s water level drop. We have had a bit of rain these last days, but need a lot more.
Author
I hope you get some soon, but not too much at once. . .
Bravissima Frances,you’ve been such a prolific reader in August!
Thank you for mentioning me!
So,first things first-I’ve read Jane Harper, The Promise (great book) and The Housekeeper and the Professor (obviously)
All the others go to my list (if,and when, I could find them)
Some of the books I’ve read in August:
Very interesting fact-maybe for the first time it has happened that the books I was reading simultaneously vere very similar:Norman Russell’s An Invitation To Murder and Hannah Rothchild’s House of Trelawney-British aristocracy,dilapidated castles,no money….the first one is more of a mystery and the second one is kind of satire
You’ve read Elizabeth Strout’s Oh,William, “so,there was that”-wonderful !
Paula Hawkins’ A Slow Fire Burning is a mystery,that unfolds it until the last page,full of twists, aftermaths of tragedies,tragic characters with their pains and sorrows…..I like it but I think I prefer The Girl on the Train
I’ve found Lan Samantha Chang’s The Family Chao on Obama’s list of recommendations. The saga of the chinese family (and community) in a small american town. Almost every critic I’ve read describes it as modern-day Brothers Karamazov (I’ve read the book some forty years ago….). It is a multifaceted book,a good one,kind of dark “American Dream”,about complex family relationships ,race,immigrants …..
Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch is a special book. M. Roffey is Trinidad borne author,with such “a louding voice”. The novel is a fairy tale,but what a fairy tale,not a Disney’s one but wild and raw and ancient. It is about a woman from ancient time,cursed to be a mermaid. It is about power of love,about people,haunted by the legacy of slavery and colonialism. It is also a story about Miss Rain,the “white woman with a creole song in her mouth”,about immortal evil and curses and jealousy,about bad,greedy people….. because all fairy tales are complex and not all of them have a happy end. And,to quote M. Albright :” There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”
I’m now very busy swimming,eating and enjoying life but reading goes very high in this category as well,so,I read a lot,too,but my list for September will not be long.Why? It will remain a mystery for now 🙂
Dottoressa
Author
As always, Dottoressa, a rich list with several titles I’m adding to my TBR list — and moving The Mermaid of Black Conch toward the top, I think.
I’m curious about what you’re up to now, that’s keeping your September list shorter than usual. I have one little guess at the mystery and I can see I’ll have to wait to find out if I’m right! 😉
Oh, Frances, I’m so glad I popped in to check on what you’ve been up to! What is more tantalizing than your reading list?
I read The Promise and found it interesting and in that slightly canted unfamiliar country writer’s voice? Does that make sense? A book that required no translation into English, yet another vision contained in the words.
I didn’t read the books unavailable in English because (mutter mumble) …
I jotted five titles to nab in the future. My eyes glazed when I saw Bad Actors. Jiminy Crimmus, how did I miss a Mick Herron release? The horror!
You’re such a busy bee. Reading like a house afire, entertaining, being artful … I bow to you.
Cheerios, Deborah
Author
And I’m glad you stopped in because that’s prompted me to check out what @a.conteuse.redux has been up to (Instagram is becoming unmanageable, and I don’t spend much time scrolling these days) . . . and there are at least three titles there I need to read, thank you!
Yes, to your assessment of the voice in The Promise (and completely with your IG response to those who critiqued style as too difficult).
Rush, rush to Bad Actors! So entertaining, again!
and Cheerios (Honey-Nut?) to you as well. The image of you bowing to me as a busy bee is too funny. The reading (as you might guess) comes at the expense of house-cleaning, and I do not lie. . . xo
The Housekeeper and the Professor is already on my list, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. I fell in love with Ogawa’s novel The Memory Police, and in fact gave that novel to quite a few people for Christmas, and am very much looking forward to this one. Thank you for reminding me and I’ll move it up but I have to read the tottering piles of in-house books.
Aristotle and Dante sounds interesting. I still haven’t started reading Elly Griffiths and have fallen behind on Nick Herron as well. Have been reading Booker Prize nominees, but now that the short list has been announced and I have read most of them, I am pulled in many directions by competing interests and my two, perhaps three (oh my!) book clubs. And I think I have Oh William slated for next week, following a revisit to the earlier Amgash novels.
Author
I’ll have to look for The Memory Police, not having read anything by Ogawa before The Housekeeper and the Professor.
I applaud you working your way through the Booker Prize nominees . . . and envy you your book clubs.